document.getElementById vs jQuery $()

Question

Is this:

var contents = document.getElementById('contents');

The same as this:

var contents = $('#contents');

Given that jQuery is loaded?

Answer 1

Not exactly!!

document.getElementById('contents'); //returns a HTML DOM Object

var contents = $('#contents');  //returns a jQuery Object

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In jQuery, to get the same result as document.getElementById, you can access the jQuery Object and get the first element in the object (Remember JavaScript objects act similar to associative arrays).

var contents = $('#contents')[0]; //returns a HTML DOM Object